effendi

Effendi or Efendi (Arabic: أفندي Afandī; Persian: آفندی ) is a nobility title meaning a lord or master.^[1] It is a title of respect or courtesy which was used equivalent to the English Sir, in Turkey. It follows the personal name, when it is used, and is generally given to members of the learned professions, and to government officials who have no higher rank, such as Bey or Pasha. It may also indicate a definite office, as Hekim efendi, chief physician to the sultan. The possessive form efendim (my master) is used by servants and in formal intercourse.

In the Ottoman era, the most common title affixed to a personal name after that of agha was efendi. Such a title would have indicated an "educated gentleman", hence by implication a graduate of a secular state school (rüşdiye), even though at least some if not most of these efendis had once been religious students, or even religious teachers.

The word itself is a corruption of the Greek aphthentes (afendis), which in antiquity denoted a person who was legally eligible ("authorized") to represent himself.^[2]

Other uses

• Effendi was also considered a man of high education or social standing in an eastern (Mediterranean or Arab) country. It was a title of Turkish origin, analogous to Esquire, and junior to Bey in Egypt during the period of Muhammad Ali dynasty.^[3][4]

• Effendi is still used as an honorific in Egypt and Turkey, and is the source of the word أفندم؟ effendim?, Turkish: efendim, a particularly polite way of saying "Pardon me?".

• In Lebanon only one family- The Karami (Karame or Karameh as well) Family - was attributed with the title which dates back to their ancestors for 650 years being the Grand Muftis of Tripoli and the North of Lebanon. Todate, they remain the traditional Sunni powerhouse and political strong family of the Sunnis of North Lebanon and one of the leading Sunni political families of Lebanon and the Arab World. They have traditionally been called Effendi after their first name and that remains till today (Like The late premier Rashid Karami was also known in the political circles and among the Lebanese people by Rashid Effendi or El Effendi).

• The colonial forces of British East Africa and German East Africa were built from a stock of Sudanese soldiers of the Egyptian army which was nominally under the Ottoman Empire. These units entered East Africa with some officers who brought their title of "effendi" with them and thus it continued to be used for non-European officers of the two colonial forces. Up to the present the Swahili form of "afande" is a way to address officers in the armies of Kenya and Tanzania.

• Effendi (Governor's Commissioned Officer) was the highest rank that a Black African could achieve in the British King's African Rifles (KAR). They were equivalent to the Viceroy's Commissioned Officers in the British Indian Army. An Effendi's authority was confined to other KAR troops (Askaris), and he could not command British troops.^[5]

• Effendi was also a non-European's officer rank in the Schutztruppe of German East Africa. Efendis were promoted by a Governor's warrant, not by a Kaiser's commission, as white commissioned officers were. Effendis had no authority over white troops. In the Schutztruppe this rank was used together with other ranks of Ottoman origin like "Tschausch" (sergeant) and "Ombascha" (corporal).

• In Indonesia and Malaysia, "Effendi" can serve as someone's name.

• In Bosnia and Herzegovina "Effendi" refers to Muslim clerics. local spelling "Efendija"

• Jazz Piano legend McCoy Tyner has one composition named "Effendi". it appears on his debut album, "Inception".

See also

• Ottoman titles
• Agha
• Bey
• Pasha

Notes

References

• Baranovitch, Nimrod. "From the Margins to the Center." China Quarterly 175: 726-750 . Cambridge Univ. Press, 2003.
• Drompp, Michael. Tang China And The Collapse Of The Uighur Empire: A Documentary History. Brill Academic Publishers, 2004.
• ReadLiterature.com - Definition of Efendi
• A Nation of Empire: The Ottoman Legacy of Turkish Modernity